The publisher Holt, Rinehart, and Winston has been reprinting most of the mysteries of Patricia Moyes in its Owl series, and Falling Star has been one of them. While it is not one of her stronger books, most other authors would be glad to claim it.

The motive and murder methods are not convincing, however, and the number of suspects too limited for a really strong puzzle. Nonetheless, the author’s experiment of eschewing third-person narration in favor of a story teller who is a movie executive and also a bit of a prig (and not too bright) works well.

Also, Moyes’s series detective, Henry Tibbett, continues to be likable and efficient, if somewhat bland.

“Patricia Pakenham-Walsh, aka Patricia Moyes, was an Irish-born British mystery writer. [She] was born in Dublin on January 19, 1923 and was educated at Overstone girls’ school in Northampton. She joined the WAAF in 1939. In 1946 Peter Ustinov hired her as technical assistant on his film School for Secrets. She became his personal assistant for the next eight years.

“Her mystery novels [beginning with Dead Men Donít Ski in 1959] feature C.I.D. Inspector Henry Tibbett. One of them, Who Saw Her Die (Many Deadly Returns in the US) was nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award in 1971.

“She married photographer John Moyes in 1951; they divorced in 1959. She later married James Haszard, a linguist at the International Monetary Fund. She died at her home in the British Virgin Islands on August 2, 2000.”

Johnny Under-Ground was the first novel I read featuring Moyes Henry and Emily Tibbets, and I read most of the others soon after as I was able to find them. While the Tibbets are bland I found Moyes highly enjoyable, and hope they find their way into print again.

At least one of the Tibbet books features a crossover with Nicholas Freeling’s Piet Van der Valk. I don’t recall if Freeling returned the favor though.

I’m not sure why, but at the time I read quite a bit of Moyes, Josephine Bell, Charity Blackstock, and Joan Fleming — maybe their paperback publisher Ballantine just had a really good distributor in North Texas. But I have fond memories of all of them, and have reread some of the Moyes, Bell, and Blackstock books in recent years.

The crossover book you’re thinking of has to be DEATH AND THE DUTCH UNCLE. What’s strange about that, at least to me, is that that’s the one book of Moyes I remember reading. Here’s what one online bookseller says about it:

“…in which Henry Tibbett, now a full Superintendent, moves into the rarified atmosphere of international politics, following up the mysterious death of a small-time gambler in a seedy British pub. And in which an equally astute and gentle policeman, Inspector Van der Valk (see Nicolas Freeling) of Holland, first encounters the redoubtable Superintendent from New Scotland Yard.”

At the time I wasn’t all that interested in mystery fiction that dealt with international politics, which is probably why I don’t remember reading another book by Moyes.

When you’re expecting one thing — a Scotland Yard murder mystery — and you get something else — international politics — it can mess you up with an author but good.

Not that I’m blaming her — it was me, and while she’ll have to wait her turn, I have no problem in giving her and the Tibbetts another try.

The only Moyes novel read here is A SIX LETTER WORD FOR DEATH. It’s a crossword puzzle mystery, and seemed fairly blah. Too much emphasis on all the decor and status symbols in people’s homes – not enough mystery.

My wife Judy, who doesn’t usually read mysteries — she prefers to watch TV — once read Moyes’ first book, DEAD MEN DON’T SKI, and I remember saying pretty much the same thing that Marv and Mike have said: “bland” and “blah.”

There’s a review in 1001 MIDNIGHTS that’s quite a bit more positive, and I’ll post it here as soon as I can.

[…] detectives like Henry Tibbett [whose mystery case Falling Star, by Patricia Moyes, was reviewed here several days ago] were a reaction to the eccentric sleuths of an earlier era, e.g., Holmes, Wolfe, […]